Abstract

The relationship between private supplementary education (including hagwon and private tutoring) and academic achievement has been widely discussed, yet the direction of influence between the two remains unclear. Using six-year longitudinal data tracking the same individuals from middle school to high school (N = 2,568), the present study examined within-person associations between parental spending on private supplementary education and perceived academic achievement. Spending on private supplementary education was reported by parents, whereas perceived academic achievement was assessed using both parent- and child-reports. At the between-person level, children from families with higher spending showed higher overall academic achievement. At the within-person level, however, increases in spending did not predict subsequent improvements in achievement, whereas increases in achievement were followed by increases in spending. This pattern was consistently observed across both the parent-reported and child-reported achievement models. That is, when children’s achievement exceeded their usual level, parents increased subsequent private education spending. These findings remained robust after controlling for family socioeconomic status and were more pronounced among males. Overall, parental spending on private supplementary education appears not to precede academic improvement, but rather to function as a selective, reactive investment in response to changes in their children’s performance.